Covid-19 has been a time of rapid adaptation for individuals and businesses, and child care is no exception. With the sudden widespread Stay at Home orders, many child care businesses started losing enrollments and losing revenue. An opportunity to sustain and hopefully grow your small (and essential) business is critical right now. For child care providers, that means being able to deliver tours to new parents even during a pandemic.
Making tours pandemic-proof
Rosa Padilla, owner and director of The House of Little Angels in Daly City, CA, found out she had a parent interested in touring her program. She was going to cancel it for safety reasons, before realizing she could try a new tactic for the tour– make it virtual.
Rather than a risky in-person tour, Padilla transitioned it to FaceTime. She was nervous about it, but put on a smile and conducted a pretty typical tour over her phone’s video call function. She introduced herself, gave an overview of her program and daily rhythm, and gave a tour of the space. While it felt a little uncomfortable to be video chatting with a stranger, Padilla was able to overcome that.
What felt different about a virtual tour
The biggest change she observed had less to do with the video call itself, and more to do with the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, the parent had a lot of questions about cleaning practices as it relates to Covid-19. To address these concerns, Padilla made sure to include how she was incorporating new and increased cleaning routines throughout her space and schedule. She was able to reassure the parent while still sharing the important details about what a day in her program looks like.
Padilla hung up the call unsure if she’d done it right, but clearly she must have because the parent enrolled soon after.
A healthy pipeline of families interested in your program is important to the stability and success of your program, and virtual tours are one way to maintain that in the time of Covid-19.
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